Western Watersheds Project Sues Forest Service to Protect Bighorn Sheep in Arizona
For immediate release - July 30, 2009
| Contact: | Erik Ryberg - (520) 622-3333 |
Western Watersheds Project Sues to Protect Bighorn Sheep in Arizona
Western Watersheds Project filed suit today in Federal Court in Tucson, Arizona to stop a large domestic sheep trailing operation in desert bighorn sheep habitat on the Tonto National Forest. Domestic sheep are a source of respiratory illness that can devastate wild bighorn sheep herds.
The Forest Service proposes to trail up to 8,000 sheep for 56 days from an area near Heber, Arizona down to the Tonto Forest boundary near Mesa.
The sheep trail goes through areas that are currently occupied by desert bighorn sheep, which were reintroduced into the Four Peaks area of the Tonto National Forest in the 1980's. According to the Arizona Game and Fish Department, wild bighorn sheep are found year-round in areas the domestic sheep will be trailed through.
Domestic sheep are carriers of a respiratory illness that is fatal to wild bighorn, and that has been responsible for large die-offs of bighorn sheep populations. Wild bighorn sheep are gregarious animals that will approach domestic sheep, and the likelihood that such interactions will result in an illness is high. Many game managers recommend the immediate killing of any wild bighorn sheep that is suspected of commingling with domestic sheep in order to prevent the wild bighorn from taking the disease back to its herd and potentially destroying the entire herd.
"The Tonto National Forest is proposing to bed thousands of domestic sheep right in the middle of occupied wild sheep habitat" said Erik Ryberg, attorney for Western Watershed Project. "The risk of transmission of disease is far too great to ignore, given what it could potentially mean for Arizona's wild bighorns."
He adds that the Arizona Department of Game and Fish's reintroduction program has also been frustrated by the Forest Service's domestic sheep policies. The Department has been hoping to reintroduce wild sheep into Chevelon Canyon and several wilderness areas in Arizona, but has been unwilling to do so given the high risk of mortality to the newly introduced wild bighorn sheep.
